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Announcements & Updates: FAS Personnel Updates, Research Development at FAS, GMAS/CREW Updates, PAF and ADI Journal Changes, Research Administration Education
New University Purchasing System: HCOM is coming!
Hot Topic of the Month: VCCS and VUCS: Faculty Salary Cost Sharing
Announcements & Updates:
1. FAS Personnel Updates: Please welcome our new RAS Friday attendees and new FAS employees:
- Pamela Baker-Webber (Research Administration Services) -- Sponsored Research Administrator for the Social Sciences
- Kathy Zuccala (Research Administration Services) -- ARRA Project Specialist
- Meg Jarvi (Human Evolutionary Biology) -- Financial Associate II
2. Research Development Report: Upcoming Limited and Notable Funding Opportunities
The upcoming limited-submission funding opportunities are listed in the table, available here. Please contact Susan Gomes, 496-9448, for questions on any of these opportunities or for questions about funding opportunities in the Division of Science. For information or questions regarding funding opportunities in the Social Sciences or Arts and Humanities, including DDIGs (NSF's Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants), please check here or contact Kathryn Coughlin, 495-6907.
3. GMAS/CREW Updates from Veronica Surrette (FAD Systems Solutions) --
- CREW release Oct. 25th: adding new information (segment close date, electronic flag, organizational DUNS number, federal reporting type)
- CREW: Invalid Code Combination report is broken again, should be fixed on Monday 10/18
- GMAS: 9/25/10 release included new home page. Next release is 12/18/10, which will include a couple of new NSF forms (development and authorization form, and suggested reviewers form)
4. PAF and ADI Journal Changes: Please visit the FAS Office of Finance home page for updates.
5. Research Administration Education
RAS workshops and classes have started. Upcoming January and February 2011 workshops include Spending Sponsored Funds: Case Studies (Alan Long & Nuala McGowan) -- January 2011; IACUC (Ellyn Lane) -- January 2011; and Cost Transfers (Alan Long, Nuala McGowan, and Rachel Cahoon) -- February 2011.
NCURA: 12/16/10 Mark Barnes at RADG ("Responsible Conduct of Research Education"), 12/16/10 Essentials in Action, 1/26/11 Current Topics in Research Administration (Pat Fitzgerald & Mary Mitchell), NCURA national meeting in Washington, D.C. Oct. 31-Nov 3, NCURA Financial Research Administration XII conference in San Diego March 4-6, 2011
Harvard's Overview of Sponsored Projects Administration: 12/1/10 (sign up now, on OSP website)
Research Excellence in Administration Certificate at Harvard (REACH) Fundamentals course will likely begin in February 2011. Upon successful completion of the program, participants will earn a certificate. Look for applications to be sent out soon.
Harvard Crimson Online Marketplace (HCOM): New University Purchasing System
Mary Ann Bradley, FAS Associate Dean for Administrative Operations & HCOM Executive Sponsor
Katherine Gates, Project Manager FAS HCOM
Mary Ann and Katherine spoke about some benefits we will see with HCOM, including creating a single procurement process for the University, a cohesive way to meet audit requirements, central Accounts Payable receipt and payment of invoices, and electronic receiving. Please see the handout here. Please see sample detail listing showing detail of HCOM POs here. For questions about HCOM at FAS, please contact Katherine Gates at kgates@fas.harvard.edu.
OSP Updates
Tiffany Blackman, Manager of International Operations and Grants & Contracts Officer
OSP Personnel Updates:
Chris Kelly – Grants and Contracts Specialist for EPS, CCB, CGR, and CBS
Melissa Siegel – Senior Grants & Contracts Specialist, will be working with HKS and IQSS to start (start date Nov 1st)
Jennifer Ponting – to replace the position that Griff Griffin left (Grants & Contracts Officer) – start date Nov 8th
Jon Dutt – promoted to QA Specialist on the Operations Team as of 9/30/10 (replacing Jessica Morand who was promoted to Operations Team Manager)
Westley Cineus – promoted to Financial Analyst as od 10/7/10 (replacing Tricia Hopkins who has moved to EPS)
FFATA/NIH/NSF Updates:
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) – A little like ARRA, in the sense that they now want to know a whole lot of information. New requirements effective as of 10/1/10. Prime awardees are now required to report first-tier subawards awarded after 10/1/10. Reporting is required for subs over $25K. New reporting portal fsrs.gov will be available 10/29/10. Reporting is due by the end of the month of the execution of the sub. Example: Subs fully executed in November must be reported via fsrs.gov by 12/31/10.
NSF Updates – Proposals due on or after January 18, 2011 need to comply with FFATA, including changes to the cover sheet and a new required data-sharing plan. Also, the inclusion of voluntary cost sharing is now prohibited (you can list it in a narrative manner, but not in a quantifiable manner). More info about NSF changes available here. NSF Data Sharing Plan Required: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp
NIH Updates – new form set for proposals due January 25th, 2011 and later. Make sure you’re using the most up-to-date forms (Adobe forms B-1). We used to have to do complicated progress reports for NIH Director’s Pioneer (DP) awards. Now as of 12/22/2010 you’ll be able to use NIH ERACommons. NIH is going to shorten its Funding Opportunity Announcements. Investigators can use PI function to do their citation. More NIH update information below:
NIH eRA eSubmission Items of Interest - October 27, 2010
Hello ADOBE-FORMS-B1
Here are some recently published notices in the NIH Guide for Grants & Contracts:
NOT-OD-11-007 NIH, AHRQ, CDC, FDA & NIOSH to Require Use of Updated Electronic Application Forms in 2011
NOT-OD-11-008 Updated Electronic Application Forms Required for F, K, T and D Submissions with Due Dates of January 25, 2011 and Beyond
As indicated in the announcements, new application packages with a Grants.gov Competition Id of ADOBE-FORMS-B1 MUST be used for Fellowship (F), Career Development (K), and Training (T & D) applications starting with due dates on/after January 25, 2011.
For all other application types (e.g., Rs), we are allowing for a transition period and will accept either ADOBE-FORMS-B or ADOBE-FORMS-B1 packages for due dates on/before May 7. Our opportunity-posting team is hard at work making the ADOBE-FORMS-B1 application packages available for the 424-identified NIH opportunities that remain active past May 7. (Yes, 424 is the real number – pretty freaky!) As part of this process, we are actually changing the Close date for the ADOBE-FORMS-B packages. Please do not panic – we are also adjusting the “grace” period behind the scenes to allow Grants.gov to continue accepting the packages through the May 7 deadlines.
Modular Budget Schema Error
We understand that some users are encountering a Grants.gov “Schema Error” when submitting applications using the PHS 398 Modular Budget form. Grants.gov has identified the form bug and has provided us with a new version of the form. It will, however, take some time for NIH to complete the development work needed on their end and to incorporate the form into their application packages.
In the meantime, here is some advice to get around the issue:
- Check to make sure Direct Costs information (Section A) is included for every budget period that you touch.
- Save your application, close it and then re-open it (the forms do some “clean-up” work when you close them).
- Submit again.
Be sure to follow the standard process for reporting a “system issue” if the above steps do not work to resolve the schema error and your ability to submit on time is threatened.
AORs, Mark Your Calendars
Grants.gov rolled out their new security updates over the Columbus Day weekend (see http://www.grants.gov/securitybuild/). Grants.gov users will now be forced to reset their passwords every 90 days. This means that many passwords will be expiring in mid-January – just a few weeks before our big Feb 5 R01 deadline. Users will start seeing a password expiration reminder when they log in to Grants.gov, starting 15 days before expiration. Mark your calendars now to log in to Grants.gov and reset your password within the two weeks before your target deadline to ensure that appropriate access is in place. Remember – the “error correction window” will no longer be around to cushion the impact of these foreseeable issues.
New Grants.gov Support Resources
Did you know that Grants.gov now offers the ability to submit a trouble ticket online and receive a confirmation ticket number? Their new Grants.gov Self-Service Web Portal includes Top 10 FAQs, Alerts, access to their self-help knowledge base, and the ability to track Ticket status. Clicking the Contact Us link in the upper-right corner of the page brings you to additional links to Submit a Ticket online and access Live Chat. It is really a great new feature and complements our own self-help resource to provide an easy way to initiate the appropriate documentation should you encounter a system issue.
Hot Topic of the Month: VCCS and VUCS: Faculty Salary Cost Sharing
Alan Long, Assistant Dean for Research Finances and Systems, FAS RAS
Alan's "hot topic" for October is VCCS and VUCS: Faculty Salary Cost Sharing. Please see handout here.
